December 17, (THEWILL) – Karim Benzema made it known that he had no desire to return to Qatar to feature in Sunday’s World Cup final between France and Argentina before French coach, Didier Deschamps, completely ruled him out of consideration.
THEWILL recalls that Benzema was with Les Bleus in Qatar, fresh from winning the 2022 Ballon d’Or for his spectacular last season. But he had to return to Madrid right away to rehabilitate after suffering an injury in France’s initial training session after they arrived in camp.
The 34-year-old has since fully recovered from his injury, and on Thursday, he participated in a 60-minute friendly match against Leganes as part of their training at Real’s facilities, fuelling rumours that he could play in the final before he personally squashed them with a brief online post that read: “I am not interested.”
However, it seems that both parties share this sentiment because Deschamps insisted in his final pre-game press conference that he is only dealing with 24 players and is not considering the injured Benzema or Lucas Hernandez.
Deschamps said: “Some players have been injured and Karim Benzema, is one of them and Lucas Hernandez, got injured in the first game. From that point on, I have 24 players in my squad and they are the ones at my disposal, so I don’t think it is fair to those players to ask about players who aren’t here.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
